Chapter Text
Tanjiro Kamado hadn’t realized yet, but he had been traveling for 59 years. The search for the blue spider lily has been long abandoned as he had the ability to walk in the sun. Nevertheless, Tanjiro felt that he had something missing, something he couldn’t place, a hole in his heart that had no chance of being filled.
‘What am I looking for’ said the voice that wasn’t his.
Tanjiro ignores the voice in favor of watching the sunset. The vibrant pinks and oranges tug at his heart for a reason that he couldn’t place. He looks away from the sky with unknown pain in his heart.
The voice scoffs inside of his head, ‘you can see the sun and your choosing to just look away?’
The voice is constantly there, a reminder of a great victory or a great failure. The voice is always nagging, belittling, and scorning everything. After a great deal of time, Tanjiro learned to just ignore it.
‘How stupid could you possibly be?’ The voice continues, mocking Tanjiro for reasons unknown to him.
Tanjiro, once again, ignores it. He walks down a long dirt path for several miles before sitting down on the side.
“You wanted to look at the sunset?” Tanjiro speaks for the first time in days.
He stares at the glorious pinks, oranges, grays and blues, swirling in the sky as dusk approached. The pang in his heart was still there, but now it seemed to present itself as a fond recollection of a memory he couldn’t recall.
Tanjiro sits for several hours, staring up into the sky even as it becomes dark. He finds himself crying, his slitted red eyes becoming wet for no apparent reason.
“Hello?” A voice sounds from behind him.
Tanjiro jolts up straight, surprised that he couldn’t sense the girl that approached him.
He turns around to address her “What do you want?” His voice sounds slightly scratchy from disuse.
The girl is around six years old with short black hair and striking pink eyes that remind him of the sunset from earlier the same kind of familiar that hurt him. She’s carrying a woven basket in her hands that she seems to have a hard time holding on to.
“Are you lost sir?” She asks with a huge smile
‘Has no one taught this kid about staying away from strangers?’ The voice decides to give his unwanted input.
“If your lost I can give you directions” she beams up at him “mommy says I’m really smart when it comes to giving directions”
Tanjiro is intrigued by the familiar eyes and decides to humor her.
“I’m not lost, I just don’t have anywhere to go” he says truthfully.
The girl looks at him with sad eyes. “But what about your mommy” she says naively “can’t you go home to your mommy and daddy?”
“I can’t anymore”
“Why not?”
Tanjiro finds himself at a loss for words, he could tell her that he doesn’t have parents that he knows of but he feels like that would be unnecessary.
“My parents are very, very far away right now.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh no!” She says, almost like she was imagining her own parents being so far away from her. She seems to think about something else for a moment before she reaches to tap him on the hand.
“I could invite you to stay with my parents!” She exclaims.
Tanjiro stares at her, dumbfounded. “I don’t think your parents would be very pleased with that” he explains to her gently while ignoring the sound of the voice snickering.
The girl grabs his hand and starts walking. “My parents like to help people.”
She looks up at him, wide eyed. “Oh!” She starts “I forgot, my name is Hanako”
“Oh, nice to meet you Hanako, I’m Tanjiro”
Hanako looks at him funny for a moment before turning around and leading him the rest of the way to her house.